Max Verstappen took absolute control of the Emilia-Romagna Formula One Grand Prix, driving the Red Bull team's double at Ferrari's home that delivered a disastrous race after Carlos Sainz's early retirement and Charles Leclerc's fatal mistake in the final laps.
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Verstappen leads Red Bull double at Ferrari after disastrous race at Imola
After a strong start from pole position on a wet track, Verstappen led all laps in Imola ahead of teammate Sergio Perez for the fastest lap point, amid a dominant performance by Red Bull, to score his second win of the season and close the gap on championship leader Leclerc, who made a fatal mistake The last while he put pressure on Perez. f1 data
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Lando Norris inherited third place, claiming a remarkable podium for his McLaren team after struggling in the opening races.
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George Russell did a very good race on the Mercedes to finish fourth despite Valtteri Bottas putting pressure on him in the last laps.
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Leclerc saved what could be saved in the last laps to finish sixth at the end, making this a disastrous weekend for Ferrari at home, after it was hoping to delight its fans with a new victory.
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Yuki Tsunoda put in a solid race for Alfa Tauri to finish seventh against Sebastian Vettel, who finally took Aston Martin's first points of the season, at the same time surpassing his nightmare first weekend in Australia.
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Ninth place went to Kevin Magnussen, who continued to score valuable points for the Haas team, while Lance Stroll finished tenth to give Aston Martin an extra point.
The course of the race
With many sections of the track still wet from the previous rain, all the drivers had to start on Intermediate tyres, while engineer Pierre Gasly said during the warm-up lap "more rain expected in 20 minutes".
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The start came after Verstappen maintained his lead, while Leclerc produced a weak start from second place to drop to fourth behind Perez and Lando Norris by the first brake point.
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Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo tried to pass Carlos Sainz Jr., but Ricciardo touched Sainz and the Ferrari driver skidded and got stuck on the gravel, while Ricciardo went off the track but managed to continue, although he fell to last.
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This prompted the safety car to shove the parked Ferrari out, with the Ferrari driver's second early withdrawal hurting the Prancing Horse's fortunes in the constructors' championship.
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"The track dries up really fast," Leclerc said during the laps of the safety car.
The race resumed at the beginning of the fifth lap, where the positions remained stable despite Leclerc's pressure on Sainz.
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It was only two laps before the exterior of Fernando Alonso's Alpine car broke, and after losing several places, the Spaniard headed for the retirement at the end of lap six.
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Back to the front, Leclerc had the Italian crowd excited by passing Norris into third place, but by then he was 6 seconds behind leader Verstappen.
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And while Leclerc was gradually closing the gap with Perez, Verstappen was on his way up front in a big way.
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But by the 15th lap, Verstappen said: "I definitely started slipping more," and when his engineer asked him shortly afterwards what tires he'd want if the safety car got in, the Dutchman replied: "I think the slick tires would be fine."
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Within moments of that conversation, Ricciardo got in to switch to Medium tyres, given that he's at the bottom anyway and it's well worth the risk even though there are still water spots on the track.
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With Leclerc's arrival at Perez, he was asked to do the opposite of what the Mexican does, but the latter entered to switch to "Medium" tyres, keeping Verstappen and Leclerc on the track, while many drivers entered behind them to switch to dry weather tyres, as an accident almost occurred between Ocon and Hamilton when Alpine driver has been unsafely laid off.
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Leclerc and Verstappen got in after that, and Leclerc managed to earn second place despite his slow stop, but quickly lost it given Perez's tires were hot for an extra lap.
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But Leclerc soon started putting pressure on Perez, but the difficulty was overtaking given his need not to risk going off the dry line and crossing the wet areas.
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However, Perez started to push after that and proceeded to walk away on one of the fastest laps in the race and gradually reduced the gap with his teammate, until he made a mistake on lap 28, which brought him back to 9 seconds.
The race management decided to allow the use of the "DRS" system with 30 laps left because it was safe to do so.
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The race then cooled down ahead, while Hamilton, who was in a lackluster race and stuck behind Gasly in 14th, was asked to give Verstappen a lap as the race hit his 40th lap.
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Leclerc began to gradually fall behind Perez, when he asked his engineer about the fourth plan, to which he replied: "It doesn't look good, stay on the track until the end."
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Leclerc chose to enter to change his tires with new "soft" ones with 14 laps remaining at the end, and despite the presence of a 27-second gap between him and Norris, the latter managed to overcome it.
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This prompted Red Bull to respond by recalling Perez on the next lap, where he was able to return in second place effortlessly, while Leclerc overtook Norris to regain his third place.
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The turn came on the next lap on Versta
Ben made a pit stop too and got back on top of course.
"I think we should have moved on to another set of Medium tyres," Leclerc said afterwards.
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But then disaster struck as he put pressure on Perez, as he crossed violently on the curbs, slipped and hit the rails sideways, but he managed to continue and enter to change his front wing, but fell back to ninth with 9 laps to go.
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The Monaco native started to push, and although his engineer told him everything was fine, Leclerc returned: "The feeling of the car doesn't feel good."
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Teams began warning their drivers that some light rain could fall in the last two laps of the race at Turn 7.
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The situation remained constant after that, until Verstappen crossed the line to take the victory by 15 seconds over teammate Perez.